Email for Children : Yahoo Family Account
July 25th, 2005While I was figuring out how to get a free Yahoo email account for my young nephew, I stumbled across the need to create a Yahoo Family Account.
Yahoo! Family Accounts allows a parent or legal guardian to give consent before their child creates an account with Yahoo. A child is someone under the age of 13.
The parent must register and create their own Yahoo! account, or have a previous email account. In addition they require the parent’s name and credit card information. The credit card will not be charged or stored but is required for real-time verification purposes only and as evidence that parental consent was received.
Here is the Yahoo! Registration page to register your child. But do not forget to use blocking and filtering software for kids and teach them safety online. In addition the Family resource centre has some good resources for safe online communication and safe surfing. I would like to hear your comments if you gifted your child an email account?
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Thanks for this piece of info :)
I need to create an email account for my 11 year old son. At this point I am livid to say the least. Apparently there is no way to do this without putting in my credit card information which I WILL NOT DO! This is ridiculous. Why can’t I create an email account for my son without jumping through these idiotic hoops? I understand all about internet safety. . .I have three other children who all have email accounts. . .it’s because of internet safety that I’m NOT giving you my credit card information. Isn’t there another way to take care of this?
hiya i dont know much about this but it is not good it should treat kids more grownup.
from neve
why should parents give there credit card details out people are not happy with this
People, get a grip. Your Credit Card is SAFE.
This is why it is required, it is to verify.
In addition they require the parent’s name and credit card information. The credit card will not be charged or stored but is required for real-time verification purposes only and as evidence that parental consent was received.
Just wanted to comment. I set up a Yahoo account a long time ago, and had to give this info. Not sure either why they do it that way, other than to assume it’s for ID protection. You don’t want people using YOUR name to access email accounts, do you?
Yahoo is pretty reputiable, and I have never had an issue w/giving this info. I don’t even think that CC is active anymore…
i have tried and tried to set this up for my son but when i reach the end it keeps saying my postcode is not for united states but i do keep putting united kingdom as our country..
what can i do?
go to yahoo U.K.
I have to agree with some of the parents here. I don’t feel comfortable giving out my cc information just to set up an email account for my child. I did not see a yellow security lock at the bottom of Yahoo’s screen. I was told not to give out any bank or cc numbers online if you don’t see a security lock at the bottom of the screen. I think it’s not a good idea to give this information out. I mean there are other ways the can do this. Why not do a employment verification or give them your cell, work, home number so they can call and verfiy. They are going to call the bank anyway.
Sorry Yahoo.
Is there any other website that parents can set up a Family Accounts without giving out personal finacial information.
have tried and tried to set this up for my son but when i reach the end it keeps saying my postcode is not for united states but i do keep putting Philippines as our country..
what can i do?
giving credit card information can also benefit to make sure some people arent posing as children to get our children. there are too many pedifiles online and credit card information can help verify real persons and help check for backgrounds… i think its a good idea cause i dont want some freaky old man tryig to talk to my kids online who impersonated a child. no it doesnt stop all of it but it can help. i would like to think that would be a reason for cc info i culdnt think of anything else since one has never been charged.
hey
i would wantto be here just to have fun and meet lots kids that i don’t of and im a kisd too so i would know more or less just to have fun with other kids
The CC is not an issue for me – you’re more likely to have this data ripped off from within a typical brick and mortar shopping trip (many vendors are hackable and wireless) then you would online.
My issue is that the interface is grown up crap. My 10 year old is a KID – she doesn’t want to see world politics or be offered low rate mortgages. I did the sign up thinking that yahoo would be offering something more kid friendly – its not….
Lisa,
In answer to your question, yes there are several other websites that offer family email accounts. Mu personal fave is http://www.safensoundmail.com
AND added bonus, you don’t have to give your credit card details – least not in the first 30 days (free trial).
Oh and also, yeah Jon, safensoundmail don’t have adverts which is a BIG plus for me since I think kids get enough of that in the world already.
Ladies, the system my family have been using is KidMail:
http://www.KidMail.net
No, my husband didn’t find it on his own — CBS NEWS did a great story on the whole subject and highlighted KidMail’s uniqueness in having multiple trust levels:
http://cbs11tv.com/local/Technology.Children.Kids.2.498272.html
Some of these services are “PC”, some are Mac — some are programs for download, others are accessed with Internet Explorer — some are American, some are not — there are numerous choices.
KidMail makes it easy to use and trust, and they’ve been around for years. If you’re like me, where precious time is stretched between ballet lessons and making dinner, I can tell you we’ve had nothing short of great results.
(I wish I got a commission every time I pointed out a great product or service like this!!!)
I just tried to make an account for my daughter under the family account and its asking for my credit card number, of course i won’t give it. But the funny part is that it WAS going to charge me 50 cents to verify. Some of that money was going to go to charity but I’m not going to pay anything for a so-called ‘free’ account.
HOW DO YOU GET A SMILEY FACE
The cc issue is no big deal. The real issue, is that once you have a yahoo email account for a child under 18, they still place advertisements for dating web sites for singles and other ads that are not appropriate for children, so there is nothing “family” about the yahoo mail.
You’ve got to be proactive in this stuff to protect your kids. I, personally, use http://www.kidsemail.org for my family.
a email account for the age 8
Things like this are nice to talk about but sure does suck to be involved in a accident like this!
I’ve had a yahoo account for a long time. I created an kid account today. I thought the kid email process ok and I didn’t freak at the credit card deal. I’m in IT and understand the verification process. What I DO NOT LIKE is the fact the I have to manually login to the account to monitor activity. If I want, for example, to have email forwarding of any type – I must pay for an upgrade. Forget it. Gmail lets me forward for free in any number of ways.
There is also no way to navigate to that account I created except to sign out and sign into it – with all of its restrictions. It doesn’t show as an account I created anywhere. I guess all I did was give consent. And if there is a place for administration it is MOST difficult to find. If there is not – this should be stated clearly. It might be somewhere, but for the life of me, I could not find it.
However I have heard a number of good things about KidMail, so I am going to give that a try. Man Yahoo, what a disappointment. I’m going to cancel this account tomorrow.